5 Advanced Editing Tips for Better Blog Posts

While two of the most important factors in being a brilliant blogger are excellent writing skills and the ability to come up with interesting articles, often the secret to creating winning posts, that resonates with your audience, lies in the finer details.

If you are looking for ways to craft better blog posts and take your writing to the next level, consider these five advanced editing tips that will help you bring your talent to the forefront.

Pay Attention to Formatting.

Whether you are producing commentary on current events for a news site or reviewing iPhone apps for a technology blog, the way you format your writing can dramatically effect how it’s received.

Always make sure you get to the main point of your article fast, and break up your content into short, easy-to-digest sections with bullet points and numbered lists.

The result will be an approachable, scannable, and inviting post that more people will read to completion.

Avoid Clichés.

Bloggers often lean on clichés to give a familiar feel to their writing and hopefully draw readers in.

When developing your own unique voice and striving to produce polished content, clichés only serve to gloss things over rather than getting to their essence.

As a rule of thumb, be leery of any phrases that roll off the tongue when writing. (Note: That last sentence was a great example of what not to do!)

Do Not Fall in Love with your Words.

Every writer who edits his or her own work has wasted time and energy trying to incorporate a sentence he or she is proud of, but which just doesn’t fit into the article.

If it makes you feel better, take those “golden” sentences you just can’t seem to part with, and cut and paste them into a text document for later use.

Put Yourself in the Readers’ Shoes.

Following your initial rounds of edits, make an effort to sit down and read the post from the perspective of your audience.

Be critical not only to the way the post flows and if everything is grammatically correct, but also whether the points are substantiated and the thoughts are completed.

Read it Afresh.

Once you have what you feel to be a finished product, put it down and walk away before you go and post it. By coming back to what you have written, fresh from a short period of rest, you’ll better be able to take the deeper look required of a final edit.

Closing Thoughts.

On your way to becoming a great blogger you must embrace the fact that editing plays nearly as important a roll in your success as the actual writing.

By learning effective ways to format your posts, going over your word choices and sentences with microscopic focus, and conducting multiple rounds of edits, you not only bring about an improvement in your writing skills but also witness a positive response on the part of your audience.